AgBank’s net profit for the July-September period was 51.4 billion yuan ($7.74 billion), against 49.02 billion yuan in the year-ago period.

That compared with the 4.4 percent average rise in third quarter net profit estimated by four analysts surveyed by Reuters.

AgBank said its non-performing loan ratio fell slightly to 1.97 percent at the end of September from 2.19 percent at end-June. ($1 = 6.6426 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Shu Zhang, Matthew Miller and Engen Tham; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)